UPDATED: New London street briefly closed, residents evacuated

New London – Just as Diane Fisher was beginning to relax in bed Wednesday night she heard sirens and commotion coming from outside.

Then there was a panicked knock on her door.

It was the police, telling her that she and her family needed to evacuate her house immediately.

"I didn't know what was going on," Fisher, who lives at 25 Moore Ave., said from her doorstep. "I was just settling in and all of a sudden there's someone banging on my door telling me I need to get out."

Police said a complaining party at 23 Moore Ave. told them that a male roommate had been acting strange all day, and that the roommate had threatened to blow up the house.

The complaining party also told police that there was a smell of natural gas in the dwelling. Police would later discover that the smell was coming from a leaking oil tank in the basement.

Around 9:25 p.m., police and fire personnel responded to the home, which is located between Shaw Street and Montauk Avenue, and directly across from the Mount Moriah Fire Baptized Holiness Church.

Residents along Moore Ave., were evacuated from their homes and the street was closed until about 10 p.m.

Police said contact was made with the 32-year-old man, and that he eventually came out of the home. He was taken to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, where he was placed on a psychiatric hold.

Police have not identified the man, but said they are applying for an arrest warrant.

One of the man's roommates said he and the man shared the house with two others.

"This isn't the first time he's threatened to blow up the house," the man's roommate said, asking not to be identified.